2024: The Year of the Person With a Disability.

On December 3rd 2023, the inaugural Disability Leadership Oration aired on ABC TV. This now annual event, to coincide with International Day of People with Disability, came off the back of the recently released Disability Royal Commission final report and was orated by Disability Rights lawyer Natalie Wade. Just as the Disability Royal Commission cemented that the key to ending violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disabilities is inclusion, Natalie Wade’s speech emphasised the importance of ending segregated employment, housing and education with the added emphasis on disability leadership to ensure future generations of disabled Australians enjoy equality and inclusion with non-disabled Australia.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

As a disabled person in Australia, it’s glaringly apparent that we are not equal with non-disabled Australians, so to hear Natalie Wade say it with hard-hitting facts combined with the lived experience gives a sense of validation and cements why fighting for disability inclusion is so important. I was asked recently if I get burnt out sharing my story, and I have. I do, which is why I have been relatively quiet after sharing my story over the last few years. I could especially feel this exhaustion when I recently spoke on a panel about women in local government and, as a result, only briefly shared my lived experience. However, as others have said after watching Natalie Wade’s oration, there is a renewed drive, and a sense of change is coming, with many of us calling 2024 the Year of the Person with a Disability.

While I do not want to give a blow-by-blow of the oration, as all Australians need to watch it for themselves, there are some important points to highlight. As of 2023, disabled Australians only share some equality in Australia with non-disabled Australians.

• 93% of pregnancies with a confirmed diagnosis of Down Syndrome are terminated because of the dismal picture painted for parents.
• Disability unemployment is double that of non-disabled people in Australia.
• Only .4% of disabled Australians (there are 4.4 million of us) have access to accessible accommodation.
• We are 3 generations away from achieving inclusion for people with disabilities in Australia.

The barriers to inclusion that exist are not our disabilities but laws, policies, practices, and built environments that prevent us from being able to participate in society. If we can’t participate, we can’t be equal, feeding into the narrative that we are less than. An article by CEO of Inclusion Australia Catherine McAlpine talks about the Polished Pathway a term she coined which describes the pathway that is set out for many people with intellectual disabilities where options that feel safe are chosen for children, which put them on a path to segregated education and employment. As a person with a disability, I have experienced this pathway by being discouraged by the education system from following my interests in favour of what was deemed more appropriate for a person like me, resulting in low grades and limited pathways to further education and employment that my non-disabled peers did not face. I am one of the fortunate ones who, with the right support circle, could eventually see my potential, which changed the trajectory of my life some 20 years later.

As Natalie Wade says, change takes time. With the proposed phase-out of segregation, we won’t see inclusion for people with disabilities for another three generations. Therefore we must act now to ensure future people with disabilities can enjoy the same freedoms non-disabled Australians enjoy in 2023, and we need all Australians to get on board to help create this change. Change starts at the grassroots level, so there is a lot that all Australians can do. Here are six recommendations from the oration —

1. Listen to what disabled children want, and don’t speak for them.
2. Design with inclusion in mind.
3. Create opportunities for people with disabilities where you live, work and play.
4. At home, ask yourself if a person with a disability could access your space and if you are unsure, ask.
5. Ask people with disabilities to co-create and advise.
6. Employ people with disabilities onto boards and into leadership positions.

We can change the current narrative that people with disabilities are less than others, that we are a burden on society, and that expectations of people with disabilities should be low, but we can’t do it alone. It is non-disabled Australians who have created the barriers which prevent us from participating fully in society, and we need non-disabled Australians to help us remove the barriers so we can participate in society in an equal manner. Let’s make 2024 the Year of the Person With a Disability.

Watch the 45-minute oration here.